It was climbing over the fence.
She was fifteen, sitting on her boyfriend's backyard trampoline at about half past ten at night. His yard sits about a metre above a small park behind the house. From the trampoline they could see over the fence into the park, faintly lit by the yard lights.
As they talked, she felt a sudden chill, the sense that they were being watched, and more than that, that something wanted them to know it was watching. She jumped at every sound. Her boyfriend laughed at her. Then he went still, rose up on his knees, and stared into the park. "There's a man watching us from that tree."
She asked him what it was doing. He said it was very tall, its head halfway up a big eucalyptus, with only its head and shoulder showing, and its eyes were glowing, or reflecting the yard lights. She half suspected he was teasing her for being jumpy, so she sat up and leaned over him to look.
It was there. It was very tall, and darker than the shadows of the trees around it. Unlike the trees, the yard lights didn't seem to touch it. Its eyes shone brightly. She could see a shoulder and an arm draped over the trunk, which is how she knew it was no animal. It was far too tall to be a man.
She fell back on the trampoline. Her boyfriend told her quietly to start moving toward the house, because it was coming toward them. She couldn't move. He had to haul her up, swearing, telling her it was nearly at the fence. As she scrambled off she caught a glimpse of a figure almost across the short stretch between the trees and the yard. She bolted for the stairs to the front door. When she slowed to look back, he yelled at her not to. It was climbing over the fence. She made it inside without breaking her neck on the stairs.
His very religious family believed it was a demon testing their faith. She doesn't think so. She estimates it was about three metres tall, with bright, glowing white eyes, and was certainly no ordinary prowler. About a month later, during a late-night video call, her boyfriend told her he could see a figure watching her from the exposed ceiling beams of her old barn-like house.
Four years on, she still can't stop thinking about it.